3-on-3 roundtable: Reaction to Glen Davis’ fractured left foot

Against the New York Knicks on Wednesday, Glen Davis suffered a left foot injury after stepping on Iman Shumpert’s foot early in the first quarter. It was revealed later that night that Davis fractured his left foot.

But it wasn’t until the next day when the Orlando Magic revealed the severity of the injury — Davis had fractured the fifth metatarsal in his left foot and was expected to be out 8-12 weeks. In other words, he could miss the rest of the season.

Magic Basketball reacts to news of Davis’ injury.

What were your first few thoughts when Davis went down?

Nate Drexler: Honestly, I didn’t think this would be a potentially season-ending injury. My first thought was that the Magic would struggle to cover Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler for the rest of the game, but it really didn’t occur to me that this was a serious injury.

Sean Highkin: A potentially season-ending injury sucks, no matter how frustrating the player in question has been this season. I feel bad for him and wish him the best in his recovery.

Noam Schiller: Mostly, it just sucks for Glen. He hasn’t been the funnest guy to watch this year, but he’s consistently tried hard to acquit himself to a bigger role. Then again. Andrew Nicholson!

What does this mean for the Magic this season?

Drexler: A few less wins, a few more losses, and a lot more minutes for Andrew Nicholson (hopefully). Like it or not, Glen Davis is a huge part of both the offense and defense, and comes equipped with a “win at all costs” mentality. This is honestly a blow to an already troubled squad.

Highkin: I don’t think it will really have that big an impact one way or the other on their win-loss record. The Magic are pretty good at losing games with or without Big Baby in the lineup. The silver lining here is that it opens up a lot of extra minutes for Andrew Nicholson, whose recent DNP-CD’s make no sense whatsoever. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts the majority of games the rest of the way and I’ll be interested to see what he can do given that added responsibility.

Schiller: That the defensive team from November and December is done for. Davis has been the team’s best frontcourt defender by a mile, but his struggles with his shot have consistently taken the offense down. Without him, this is guaranteed to be an offense-first squad.

Is Orlando a better team without Davis?

Drexler: Maybe. It’s not a pot shot at Davis, but numbers don’t lie, right? The Magic are 5.0 points per 100 possessions worse with Davis on the floor, per NBA.com. Does that speak more to the team in general or to Davis’ inflated usage and shot volume? I’m not really sure. Right now, I’m more caught up thinking about how Orlando is going to do anything inside when Vucevic and Nicholson are not in the game.

Highkin: Yes. They’re not a good team regardless, but games will certainly be more watchable without him jacking up contested long two after contested long two.

Schiller: No. The Magic went on a 10-game losing streak when Davis went down in December and have been obliterated defensively when he wasn’t on the floor. Long term, it might be advisable to give his minutes towards younger guys, but it’s hard to argue that would be the case if the team were playing for anything at the moment.

I think it hurts and I think we'll lose more games because of it. However, as you all have pointed out Vaughn hasn't been playing Nicholson near enough and that will have to change now. So this might actually be a positive thing for this team from a developmental standpoint. I have a hard time believing it will be a positive in the W/L column.